The history of a denomination: XXX.

1929 saw another General Election, and another narrow victory for the Socialists. Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister, but James Barr was not given a seat in the Cabinet. The result had no effect on the Union Assembly.
The United Free Church Assembly reconvened on 1st October 1929, and when they did there was a fine silver casket on the clerks' table, presented along with the freedom of the city of Edinburgh to the Moderator, Principal Alexander Martin. It was a gift from the city honouring him for his role in the Union.
The last report of the Union Committee was given. It was mostly taken up with the property agreement reached with the dissenting body of the Church. In addition to their churches and manses they had been awarded £25,000 and were allowed to retain the name of 'The United Free Church of Scotland' provided that they affixed the word 'Continuing' to it for five years. The difference between this and the harsh treatment meted out to the minority in 1900 is startling at first, but only until one realises that the 1929 settlement was deliberately designed to prevent a repetition of the events of 1900-1904 embarassing the Union.
The continuing body still continues under the name of the United Free Church of Scotland. It is a broadly evangelical body, although it has approved the ordination of women since the 1930s. Congregations from both United Presbyterian and Free Church backgrounds adhered to the Continuing party.
After some routine business had been done, Dr. Harvey moved that the House adjourn, to meet the following day in the Hall at 10 AM, then to proceed to the High Kirk of St. Giles at 11 to meet with the Church of Scotland Assembly for worship and thanksgiving before proceeding to the Hall of Assembly in Annandale Street where the Union would take place and the first General Assembly of the new Church of Scotland would take place.
Dr. Forrester, representing the dissenters, moved that the Assembly should not proceed with the Union, but rather adjourn to meet the next day in St. Andrew's Hall, Glasgow. Should Dr. Harvey's motion be adopted, he said, the minority would make no protest, but the Church would divide. Of course the Union went ahead, and the United Free Church split. The minority went to have their Assembly elsewhere.

Meanwhile the majority of the United Free Church were going into Union with the Church of Scotland. That night the Lord Provost, Magistrates and Town Council of Edinburgh held a reception in Parliament House to which the members of the two uniting Assemblies were invited. There was something of a carnival atmosphere in the Athens of the North.
The morning of the Union was wild and stormy with heavy rain and high winds. The two Assemblies met separately for the last time at ten in the morning, and at eleven they processed, headed by their respective Moderators, from their halls. Crowds lined the routes.
Two two processions met at the junction of Bank Street and the High Street, where the Moderators shook hands. A great cheer went up, and as the processions merged into one the crowd spontaneously began to sing. The song was one of the old Psalms, and the tune was 'Eastgate.'

"Behold how good a thing it is,
And how becoming well,
Together such as brethren are
In unity to dwell."

About two thousand ministers and elders entered St. Giles Kirk by the great west door for a service of thanksgiving. Though the Union was not formally consummated for some hours, it was really already a fact. The old United Free Church, formed in 1900, was no more. Most of it had merged into the Church of Scotland, and a few dissenters remained to re-fashion a Church according to their views.
The Act of Union was signed in the great Annandale Street Hall, and there finally the history of the United Free Church as formed in 1900 came to an end.

God willing, next time we shall consider some of the lessons of this history.